Scottish Fire Brigades Heritage Trust

Ever since Prometheus defied the gods of Olympus and gave the secret of fire to humanity, we've needed someone to deal with it when it gets out of control. 🔥  Cue the Fire Brigade...🔔🔔🔔

Again, this museum has been on our visit list for some time. Our Roger is an ex-fireman and he was keen to see the place so it was good that we got there eventually. 

A lack of car drivers this week meant that the logistics of travelling to Greenock involved getting two trains. We could have taken the bus to Paisley and boarded the train to Greenock there but, given the time it would take via the McGill's 66's new, much longer route to Paisley, then getting the train into Glasgow and boarding there seemed easier and actually probably quicker.

The museum is only a short walk from Greenock Central station and, once there, we were met by Graeme Kirkwood. Graeme had opened up specially just for us as the museum isn't open every day.

Graeme was a part-time fireman for 13 years then, when a rule change meant him wearing glasses made that impossible, he put his energies into studying Scottish fire station and fire service history so he made an excellent tour guide. His own web site (see end of article) is dedicated to the history of Scottish Fire Brigades.

The museum was opened in 2012 in what was Old Greenock Fire Station, which had lain empty for 52 years (it's got the big red doors) so it's not a purpose-build edifice like the Riverside Museum and is more akin to the Bridgeton Bus Garage that we visited on our previous outing. It's also a wee bit cramped for space, housing quite a few fire engines as it does, so apologies for some of the photos being a bit close. Graeme basically walked us round, explaining what we were looking at and giving us some of the history attached to the vehicles or exhibits.

As well as fire appliances and associated paraphernalia there are also exhibits from the wars, the Clydeside Blitz, the 1960 Cheapside Street whisky bond fire, the New York 9/11 attacks, paintings, and newspaper cuttings and all are worth a look at.

I think we all found it pretty interesting and Roger supplied a few personal memories of things and some of the people connected to the service. Roger also has a wallet that was made from a piece of fireman's hosepipe.

Once we'd had our tour, Graeme opened up their little presentation room and gave us a wee movie show. They have a decent selection of fire service-related movies DVDs, even one showing Barrhead Fire Station in training, which kept us entertained for a while more.

Entry to the museum is free so, after thanking Graeme very much for opening up just for us and for his informative tour of the exhibits, we left a wee donation to keep it going.

The museum doesn't have an onsite café so, before heading back to Neilston, we dropped into the local Morrison's for a very welcome cuppa.

There's a wee video below from YouTube with some old photos of Neilston and the cover image is showing what looks like the Crofthead Mill Fire Brigade back when moustaches and beards were obligatory:

You can find out more about the Scottish Fire Brigades Heritage Trust here:

• https://sfbheritagetrust.org/

...and Graham Kirkwood has a site dedicated to the The History of Scottish Fire Brigades here:

• http://www.graemekirkwood.co.uk/